Ken Nicely, Ed.D.
Director of Secondary Instruction & Technology
Roanoke County Public Schools
OBJECTIVE: To understand various ways to use data to lead whole-school change.
m.socrative.com
Effective school leaders rely on many sources of data. Name 3 that come to mind.
Lessons learned...
1. Decide what kind of leader you are going to be.
Will you bring people along or push them out of the way?
Will you create a vision or maintain the status quo?
What are the risks of creating a public vision or making your goals public?
2. Know change research and learn how to facilitate change. Think short-term and long-term.
Michael Fullan: change
Andy Hargreaves: change
Jim Collins: change
Shirley Hord & Gene Hall: change
Jim Knight: instructional coaching
Rick DuFour: professional learning communities
Edie Holcomb (2004)
Getting Excited About Data: Combining People, Passion, and Proof to Maximize Student Achievement
Activities and figures cited below are for reference purposes only. Please respect copyright and purchase the book if you intend to implement these ideas.
3. Develop an organizational and planning process.
Leadership Team
Instructional Leadership Team
Data Team
Figure 1.1. Using Data for Alignment and Achievement from Holcomb (2004)
"Saying we have a mission statement but don't know what it says is like trying to convince the highway patrol that I'm a good, careful, safe driver --- but just don't know exactly what the speed limit is," Holcomb (2004, 62).
WHAT WE SAY
EVIDENCE WE HAVE
EVIDENCE WE NEED
4. Make data-informed decisions, not data-driven decisions. Triangulate!
EXAMPLE: One year, 6th grade math scores decrease several percentage points from previous years. 6th grades scores are 4th among the five schools in the district. Central administrators call and ask what is wrong with your 6th grade teachers. How do you respond?
The grieving process related to test scores... who's to blame? what's the magic program? finally... how can I did deeper into the data to really understand and implement a balanced approach to moving forward?
5. Identify your concerns, then prioritize.
Working on the right stuff
EXAMPLE: SPBQs indicatesd that students were generally scoring lower than we would like on reading comprehension passages. Our leadership team decided that we needed to build vocabulary and we would focus on prefixes, suffixes. and root words. Enter the 1000 Word Challenge...
6. Don't be afraid to measure your efforts against standards of excellence and accountability.
How does your school measure up compared to national standards of excellence such as ...?
State and federal measures of accountability
NASSP Breaking Ranks
National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform Schools to Watch program
National School Safety Center
Learning Forward standards for effective professional development
Maintain focus on standards of excellence and what teaching & learning is really all about.
Accountability and standards are important. Graduating students prepared to communicate effectively, collaborate with colleagues, think critically, and exercise creativity is at the heart of our mission as educators and we must do it all with appropriate rigor. These are not new ideas; in fact, finding the proper balance between rigor and relevance has been a challenge throughout our history...
Progressive Education in the 1940's
Carousel Data Analysis (Holcomb)
enlarged copies of data displays
markers
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
What do these data seem to tell us?
What do they not tell us? What else would we need to know?
What good news is there to celebrate?
What needs for school improvement might arise from these data?
VARIATION: Use to compare school / class against standards of excellence rubrics (see above for ideas), and use the questions from the Monitor Your Mission activity.
7. Change is messy. There will moments of doubt and problems along the way.
Make a geometric representation of the change process. Is it a straight line? a circle? a triangle? other?
Learn to recalibrate to your mission, goals, and process.
Go for the Green! focus activity (Holcomb)
What has you/your staff seeing red? (problem)
example: "They aren't learning anything!"
QUESTION: Under what circumstances would you...? (have the same perspective / behave the same way)
Brainstorm responses
Over which responses do you / your school / your teachers have some control? (circle in green)
Go for the Green!: make items on this list your priority for change
Move forward!
8. Be a role model for how folks should treat each other through the change process. Don't give up on people.
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
Using Data to Lead Change
Ken Nicely, Ed.D.Director of Secondary Instruction & Technology
Roanoke County Public Schools
OBJECTIVE: To understand various ways to use data to lead whole-school change.
m.socrative.com
Effective school leaders rely on many sources of data. Name 3 that come to mind.
Lessons learned...
1. Decide what kind of leader you are going to be.
Will you bring people along or push them out of the way?
Will you create a vision or maintain the status quo?
What are the risks of creating a public vision or making your goals public?
2. Know change research and learn how to facilitate change. Think short-term and long-term.
Michael Fullan: changeAndy Hargreaves: change
Jim Collins: change
Shirley Hord & Gene Hall: change
Jim Knight: instructional coaching
Rick DuFour: professional learning communities
Edie Holcomb (2004)
Getting Excited About Data: Combining People, Passion, and Proof to Maximize Student Achievement
3. Develop an organizational and planning process.
Leadership Team
Instructional Leadership Team
Data Team
Figure 1.1. Using Data for Alignment and Achievement from Holcomb (2004)
Monitor Your Mission (Holcomb)
Write your school's mission statement.m.socrative.com
"Saying we have a mission statement but don't know what it says is like trying to convince the highway patrol that I'm a good, careful, safe driver --- but just don't know exactly what the speed limit is," Holcomb (2004, 62).
4. Make data-informed decisions, not data-driven decisions. Triangulate!
EXAMPLE: One year, 6th grade math scores decrease several percentage points from previous years. 6th grades scores are 4th among the five schools in the district. Central administrators call and ask what is wrong with your 6th grade teachers. How do you respond?The grieving process related to test scores... who's to blame? what's the magic program? finally... how can I did deeper into the data to really understand and implement a balanced approach to moving forward?
5. Identify your concerns, then prioritize.
Working on the right stuff
EXAMPLE: SPBQs indicatesd that students were generally scoring lower than we would like on reading comprehension passages. Our leadership team decided that we needed to build vocabulary and we would focus on prefixes, suffixes. and root words. Enter the 1000 Word Challenge...
6. Don't be afraid to measure your efforts against standards of excellence and accountability.
How does your school measure up compared to national standards of excellence such as ...?
State and federal measures of accountability
NASSP Breaking Ranks
National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform Schools to Watch program
National School Safety Center
Learning Forward standards for effective professional development
Maintain focus on standards of excellence and what teaching & learning is really all about.
Accountability and standards are important. Graduating students prepared to communicate effectively, collaborate with colleagues, think critically, and exercise creativity is at the heart of our mission as educators and we must do it all with appropriate rigor. These are not new ideas; in fact, finding the proper balance between rigor and relevance has been a challenge throughout our history...
Progressive Education in the 1940's
Carousel Data Analysis (Holcomb)
VARIATION: Use to compare school / class against standards of excellence rubrics (see above for ideas), and use the questions from the Monitor Your Mission activity.
7. Change is messy. There will moments of doubt and problems along the way.
Make a geometric representation of the change process. Is it a straight line? a circle? a triangle? other?Learn to recalibrate to your mission, goals, and process.
Go for the Green! focus activity (Holcomb)
What has you/your staff seeing red? (problem)example: "They aren't learning anything!"
8. Be a role model for how folks should treat each other through the change process. Don't give up on people.
9. Do the right thing.
A lesson learned from RAA...